The theme for the past week on Tag Tuesday has been Vintage! I am getting mine in at the very end of the last possible day, but that is okay! Let me walk you through how I did it. Click on any photo for a larger one.

I had a vintage looking postcard Tag I got from Lisa at Collage stuff -I thought that would work well for this theme.

I glued the old dictionary page down andinked the edges with distress ink - pumice stone

I sprayed it with water to distress it some more!

This is what it looked like when dry.

I added the image of a woman, originally from ARTchix Studiobut is now printed onto watercolor paper.

To finish my tag, I added the lace and a small shell I found yesterdaywhile visiting a wonderful beach with my husband.

Go visit Tag Tuesday -there is tons of inspiration there! Plus anyone can join in after emailing our hostess Carolyn. See how to join us in the sidebar once you get there : )

Each month Mary provides a collage sheet with 3 images and challenges us to create something, anything! All that is required is to use at least a part of all 3 images. For December's challenge she uploaded this lovely grouping for us to work with:

I printed this sheet out 3 times, once on brochure paper for a nice crisp print, once on vellum paper (translucent) and once on plain paper at 50% of the normal size so I would have some images smaller. I layered the vellum print of the lady with the hat directly over the paper copy of the same to soften it. Then I slipped the vellum copy of the map in between the two as I liked how it looked layered over her face, like she was thinking about traveling. I attached the smaller size calling card on top of the paper copy of the woman's hat, but underneath the vellum one and then stitched my papers together. I am thinking it would make a lovely postcard. Thank you Mary, once again!

To see all of the entries for this month's challenge, please view this post on Mary's blog - Green Paper. All entries are due posted there by December 8th and you could win an awesome package of vintage book illustrations. Mary Green also teaches wonderful online classes. I learned so much and had so much fun taking her Your Vintage GlueBook class.

Thank you for your challenges, Mary.

They are a wonderful exercise in creativity and you know I'm all for that!

I registered for Mary Green's Vintage Gluebook page Swap last month, even though I was not positive I could do it ...this swap sounded so good, I just could not resist signing up. So, I was very happy to be able to complete my work for the swap and send it off to Mary today. I made six 5" x 7" pages to swap and an extra gluebook page for Mary, for her own book. To create these, I used what Mary had taught me in her wonderful online class, Your Vintage GlueBook and added my own style to them, to make my swap pages.

Above, the woman in the purple hat is from Alpha Stamps and printed on fabric.

Each page has a strip of a dictionary over-print (tan with colorful birds, feathers) that I received as part of Mary Green's Collage Club - and I printed this collage sheet from Mary on vellum paper so you could see through to my background papers.

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Above a transparency I printed myself from an old postcard and postage stamps gifted to me from my friend Joanna Urbani (thank you!).

The image in the center is from ARTchix Studio. This one was Steven's favorite.

The "Across the Snow" page is again, from Joanna. xoxo

The transparency of the woman and the bird image are from ARTchix Studio.

Each page has a quote -most of them are LennaLines rubber stamps, which I no longer have as a business but still use quite often!

an old map, ARTchix Studio image, postage stamps, a bit of Distress Ink.

I love this page! It makes me smile.

They all started with a single background page, glued to a piece of sturdy paper.

Then I added a few items to each page.... Click for detail.

Then, I brought these pages and my travelling art kit over to my parents house the other day. My mom had some errands she needed to do and while my dad was sleeping, I worked on these pages across the hall in the spare room. This was the best thing I could have done for myself. He did wake up and I was there, but in the meantime, I could work on these and free my mind. I highly recommend doing art as therapy.

The backs are done on the computer, but then printed onto paper I received from Mary Green, in her classes, or from the Collage Club. I used 3 different kinds of paper.

I really enjoyed creating these pages and so look forward to my returns! Besides my six swapped pages, Mary is adding additional vintage papers, and a vintage book cover. Thank you, Mary.

I met Dorthe Hansen I believe, in one of Mary Green's vintage paper collage classes. Dorthe was always so kind to me. I found her blog and visited her - she creates beautiful things and has a warm & lovely spirit. Dorthe often visits my blog too, but is very busy with her shop, Den Lille Lade - located where she lives on a Danish Island in the Baltic Sea.

One day Dorthe remarked in a comment on my blog, how much she like the mail art I did for an exchange and that she had never received any. I thought to myself, ah ha! I could send Dorthe some mail art! I asked her for her address. It took me a little bit of time, but I made a simple mail art envelope and enclosed some lace and things I thought she might like or could use for her dolls or collage. I heard her birthday was coming up and that really spurred me on. Below is what I sent Dorthe; this simple card I made held my goodies for her:

My envelope for Dorthe, front and back:

Yes, this card was going on a journey, to the Baltic Sea!

Dorthe wrote about receiving this envelope along with some other lovely gifts HERE.

Yesterday, I was honored by receiving from Dorthe, her first piece of mail art, which is absolutely gorgeous, look!!

And not only did I have the beautiful envelope to gaze at, but inside Dorthe added a special handmade card with a beautiful driftwood angel she made attached!

Back in November, yup - 4 months ago, Julie Oman (Jewels) and I exchanged some vintage postcard images via email . . . I think we were both in one of Mary Green's classes then. I tracked down our messages to see just how this exchange started! Jewels wrote to me: "Lenna – I think it is a lovely idea to do an exchange with 'Whistle While You Work' (though I have no idea how she would get ANY sewing done with that dang bird on her hand LOL). No hurry which is fine with me – maybe something to start 2011 just right?"
We each pledged to create something with the image above and then trade with each other! I sent my package off to Jewels last Friday and she received it on Monday. I received her wonderful package today!! For the gift I made for her I took the image above that she had sent me - and copied it onto fabric:

I had found some embroidered cloth napkins at the Thrift shop . . . .

I sewed the image on to one and then sewed some more!

{Click on any image for more detail}

I spritzed on color and even embroidered a bit . . .

To spritz color on I used watered down acrylic paint in a spray bottle. The paint & water separate when it sits, so I simply shook it up, made sure the nozzle was not blocked and practiced first! I covered my images with a piece of scrap paper and sprayed the background of the napkin quite lightly, adding more as needed. I used 2 colors -pink and light brown. I wanted the pink to resonate with our chosen image and the light brown to tone it down and age it. Then I added more images and made Jewels a pillow!

the front

the back

To make sure the cloth napkins would fit around the pillow form, I used a wide open-weave piece of trim from my stash. I sewed it directly to the edges of the cloth napkins so the orange trim on them would still be visible. I think it actually added a lot to the look of the pillow, even though it was not a planned element.

small details

Now can you believe that when Jewels received it, she wrote me & told me that she laughed when she opened my package because . . . she has the same napkins (and a tablecloth) to match -amazing! And I thought I was being so clever!!! Now today I was honored with Jewels' first piece of mail art ever. I would not have guessed this if she did not tell me!

Inside was a beautifully wrapped package & a card with detailed notes on how she made her piece -wow!

Isn't this just gorgeous!

oh my!

(details )

love the image & the stitching

My studio wall is getting deliciously filled up!

Jewels piece is top left.

This mini quilt is just so perfect!

Thank you so much, jewels!
You have really done an incredible job.

There are a few more photos of both of our work in a set on my flickr account if you'd like to take a look. You'll find the 'art exchanges with Jewels' set inside my Fabric Art folder -EnJoY!! This was such a great thing to do and lucky me for receiving such a gorgeous piece of fabric art. I am looking forward to exchanging with Jewels again soon! You can visit her at her blog: http://justtickety-boo.blogspot.com/ : ) And there is now a wonderful post written by Jewels about our exchange, here. Enjoy, she is a wonderful writer!

I've been busy with a vintage note card swap since December, but it has been well worth my time. Gorgeous vintage style note cards came my way! All of the pieces were delivered to me by February 26. This week, I swapped them all out, 3 for 3. Yesterday I mailed 30 packages home, yay! Today, I could not resist creating an Animoto video with one vintage note card from each participant included!

I will be hosting a little book swap in the near future. If you would like to keep up with my creative swap announcements . . . . or you would really like to look at some of these vintage note cards in more detail, visit creative swaps!

At the beginning of every month, Mary Green gives a challenge on her blog, Green Paper. Here are the images she provided us for the March challenge, for free!

This is a re-sized version. To see the downloadable version of these images and what everyone has created with them, go to the March Collage challenge post. The idea is you must use at least part of all three images Mary provides. You can work with paper and glue or digitally, it's up to you. Post your entry online somewhere and then leave a link on Mary's blog directing others so they can see it. When the deadlines is up, Mary randomly chooses a winner and awards a prize - usually some of her yummy ephemera and old paper!

I've been busy so I almost did not get a chance to do this. My trick was to print the images out in a variety of sizes and on different papers and leave them out on my work table where I would see them!! It worked. I pulled this together first thing this morning. Here is a scan - click for more detail. I call it, "I love my bank!"

This spread in my small moleskine journal is for Lesson 3 in Mary Green's Vintage Gluebook week of Artful Pages-4 artists 4 ways - A collaborative online workshop that I am also teaching. My section on Altered Books is coming up in just a week!

For this lesson we are learning about visual weight. I tried to choose a larger main image printed on fabric for more "weight". I added the flower, the leaves (thanks to my friend Carol van Gerve!!) and the pearls at her feet to keep her 'heavy' if that makes any sense?! The yellow card on the side is printed on cardstock for more weight and the text behind the woman is a REAL vintage letter from 1897 ~ or there abouts. Below is how the background first looked:

Hope Karney's first lesson on ART Journaling is up and looks fantastic -it's on my list of fun things to do tomorrow after our friends leave. I'll be back, we are hosting a party tonight with my parents, Garth & Nora and friends we have made here in Florida, Bean & Chandler -should be fun! I hope you have a great day too.

My dear friend Frieda hosts lots of wonderful ATC swaps on the forum site ATCs for ALL. In fact, if you follow that link -look on the left side of the home page. Frieda made the Artist Spotlight, a well deserved honor! On ATCs for All, she is currently hosting a Vintage French ATC swap with lovely returns so far. I finally got mine made and in the mail last Saturday, so hopefully the winds will be will us and Frieda will have them in her hands soon. This is a 3 for 3 swap, but I made 4 so Frieda could choose one as a Hostess gift : )

I cut out words from Frieda's swap instructions
and used images from a 1960 French magazine.

The magazine was called Mon Ouvrage, which I had to translate and discovered it meant My Book. The second part of the title is: Modernisons les pieces anciennes. I never took French, so again, I had to use Google Translate to let me know what that meant -Modernizing the old parts! I can't read the magazine, but it's about sewing things for the home, embroidery and also clothes.

For this ATC I did a gel medium transfer of the flower design -
practicing for my lessons in 4 Artists 4 Ways!

The little black Eiffel Towers and the black French Border
German Scrap trim are from Collage Stuff, yum!

Frieda does love Vintage everything!!
I hope she enjoys these ATCs.

On a personal note, I have lots of things I'd like to share but not quite enough time! I am trying to sneak in here and share things as I can. My main focus right now is getting ready for our new online book arts course: Artful pages - 4 Artists 4 ways. It will open with the first lesson on Sunday, Feb 20th!! We are very excited about it (there are 4 of us teaching) and can't wait to see you there. My week of teaching is March 6 -12th, but I will definitely be in the classroom, participating all 4 weeks. And remember, if right now is not a good time for you, please know that this is also an ongoing class -join anytime : )

I am managing to post one photo a day to my online photo journal, so please stop by there. Another thing Frieda got me into that I just love! ~ Thank you : )

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that this new world is born. -- Anais Nin

This is a close-up of part of a skinny page (4" x8") I made for Karen Owen on her theme of Grandmother's attic! Isn't that a great theme? Karen told me she loved old jewelry and the fresh water pearls above were part of an old, broken necklace of mine. Perfect! I started by gathering things I thought might work . . . no bright colors, no nudes, a big 'yes' to vintage photos and letters - these are some of the things Karen suggested and here is how I started below...

Here is how the other side is coming along -
I've added an old family photo (Steven's Aunts)

close-up again!

It is finished!

more details

It's done!

I really enjoyed making this skinny page for our exchange (Oh My Gothic) and hope Karen enjoys it too! I will be sending it off to her tomorrow -so sorry for the delay, Karen. (This was a January project, eep!)

Sending you all creative wishes and hope you are managing the weather, wherever you are. xoxo

Lenna Young Andrews: creativity is my passion

Lenna is a mixed media artist who art journals and plays with paint, paper & ink. She’s passionate about creative expression. “Everyone can benefit from doing a few simple creative things, as often as possible!”